Winners: Auburn-Bama viewers. Losers: Saban. College Football Week 15

Winners: Was the finish of the Auburn-Alabama game the greatest of all-time in college football or just one of the top three? Other candidates: Stanford band vs. Cal and Doug Flutie vs. Miami? My vote for Auburn-Bama. Feel free to disagree or name other candidates.

Loser: Auburn’s AD said it would be disservce to the nation if Tigers aren’t in the BSC title game after beating Alabama. Disservice to the nation? That’s a bit myopic, isn’t it?

Loser: Nick Saban’s decision to attempt field goal from unmakeable distance was curious. Nothing good could happen from it. When he was caught telling someone, probably an assistant coach, over his headphone, “I told you so,” that didn’t speak much for his leadership. Rare chance to criticize Saban, so I’ll take it.

Winner: Rice Owls win Conference USA West championship and play East winner Marshall at home Saturday for chance to win first outright conference title since they won Southwest Conference in 1957. Good to know a college football program can be successful doing things the right way.

Winner: Houston. Cougars didn’t win conference, but have had good season with improved defense and will play in a bowl game. Program on the rise?

Winner: Kevin Sumlin is getting a contract extension at Texas A&M despite program taking a step backward this season with a returning Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback. He’ll have to coach next season without Case Keenum or Johnny Manziel at quarterback. He has a lot of returning players on defense, but you can’t expect them to tackle better just because they are a year older.

Loser: Nebraska coach Bo Pelini made a spectacle of himself by telling the university to fire him if they want to, then received a vote of confidence from the university Sunday. So that’s good for him, right? Yes. But bad for Nebraska fans. He isn’t popular there because of his abrasisve personaltiy. This isn’t going to end well for either.

Winner: Florida coach Will Muschamp saved his job by making offensive coordinator the scapegoat. He learned well from Mack Brown.

Not sure: TCU coach Gary Patterson called out Baylor coach Art Briles because he was more angry at Patterson for protesting a call about a dirty play by a Bears player than he was at the Bears player. If that’s true, Patterson is correct. But we’re not sure what Briles said or didn’t say to his player. Seems like Patterson should have resolved this with Briles before going to media. Nevertheless, it does make good copy.